Venice/Greece/Turkey itinerary question

[unclerich]

Looking at HAL Veendam May '07 covering:

 

Ports of call: Venice, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Santorini, Greece; Rhodes, Greece; Kusadasi, Turkey; Athens, Greece; Katákolon, Greece; Koper, Slovenia; Venice, Italy

 

Any comments/recommendations from previous cruisers this itinerary or ship? Is this "too much Greece" or are the ports substantially different? We did Western Med on Noordam this May and loved it.

 

Thanks for your feedback.

[Bruin Steve]

I haven't taken that specific itinerary or been on that ship, but...

It's a little hard to make judgments about any Mediterranean itinerary without knowing a whole lot about you and what you are looking for...

 

...Such as "where have you visited before?"

..."What sort of things would you like to see?"

 

In my view, virtually every Mediterranean port has considerable value...

But they do differ in terms of what there is to see or do, the character of the port, the size of the port, etc.

 

Many ports are large cities with more than you could possibly visit in a single port day (Rome, Barcelona, Athens)...Many are not easily accessible from port, requiring a car or bus ride and logistical difficulties with the port far from the attractions...or as the gateway to other cities and towns (Livorno for Florence, Pisa, etc.; Naples for Pompei, Capri, Amalfi, etc.; Villefranche for Nice, Monte Carlo, etc.)...Others are small towns or islands where a day is more than enough and everything is within easy reach of port (Corfu, Dubrovnik, Mykonos)...

 

Some itineraries concentrate on specific areas--like the Aegean--and won't be quite as diverse as a cruise which does a grand sweep of the Mediterranean...

 

The one you're looking at is fairly specific...You are concentrating on a region of the Mediterranean and you will have some similarities in many of the ports--though each is DISTINCT with its own attractions...But, yes, it does tend toward giving you a lot of Greece... a lot of archaeology and ancient sites...But all of the ports are very interesting...

 

If you've done a lot of Europe before and want to concentrate on this region, it's an excellent itinerary... It looks as though if you've recently done a "Western Med cruise, you may have already covered Barcelona, Rome, Livorno, Nice, etc. and this may be a great complement to that one...

 

But, for those who have not seen a lot of Europe and want a broader experience, they might want to consider a "grand Mediterranean" type of itinerary...something that covers a wider range of ports--Barcelona, Nice, Rome, Livorno...along with some of the Aegean and Venice...We did one a few years back on the Celebrity Millennium that was excellent, going from Venice to Barcelona with stops in Dubrovnik, Corfu, Santorini, Athens, Naples, Rome, Livorno and Villefranche (Princess does a similar itinerary as do a few other lnes)...

 

Good luck...

[Morgans]

It's a lovely itinerary - all the places are very different and well worth seeing. Go for it!!

 

Marge M

[unclerich]

Thanks for your answers. We've 'done' Rome, Florence, Naples/Capri, Palermo, Palma, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Tunisia. Most on land once and all on recent HAL Med cruise.

Appreciate your insight.

 

Richard